The Shell whistleblower buried alive in Shell injunctions

“My deeply held religious beliefs and moral convictions put me into a very difficult position when I realised that Shell shareholders were being deliberately deceived in regards to hydrocarbon reserves: I also had reservations in regards to certain health and safety issues of conscience which caused me great concern because it is not in consonant with my values and belief system.”

Dr John Huong: an employee of Shell Malaysia for 29 years, a Production Geologist and Asset Integrity Engineer

By John Donovan

Dr Huong, a deeply religious man with high principles, blew the whistle internally on Shell senior managements deliberate inflation of claimed proven hydrocarbon reserves. As a consequence he was the subject of unprecedented collective litigation by EIGHT Royal Dutch Shell companies who waged a campaign of terror against him for several years trying to silence him. He was buried alive in multiple injunctions, many seeking his imprisonment. This was in blatant breach of his human rights.

Because of sinister events surrounding the litigation, including spying activities, Dr Huong used bodyguards to protect his personal safety when appearing in Court.

Printed below is a letter Dr Huong prepared for a prospective employer in 2005 in the hope of finding employment to support his family. It was of course a hopeless task bearing in mind the draconian litigation, which would frighten off any would be employer in the oil industry. No company in the industry would wish to upset Shell.

Attention is drawn in particular to the text displayed in bold print. Some personal information has been redacted.

After several years of litigation, in which Shell falsified evidence, Shell settled both cases: Their claim against Dr Huong in respect of postings on this website and his claim against Shell for wrongful dismissal.

We always advised Dr Huong that Shell would never allow evidence in the defamation case to be heard in open court and this analysis turned out to be correct.

THE LETTER FROM DR HUONG.

1 October 2005

My name is Dr John Huong Yiu Tuong and was employed by Sarawak Shell Berhad and Sabah Shell Petroleum Company Limited. I am 48 years old (DOB: XXXXXXX), married with two children.

Up to May 2003, I had been working from rank and file in the above upstream E&P companies for 29 years as a geologist specialising in geo-sciences. My expertise evolving over the years are Micropalaeontology, Petrology, Sedimentology, Field Geology, Bio-Sequence Stratigraphy, Well-site Geology, Operation Geology, Exploration Geology, Reservoir Geology and Production Geology. I am experienced in Petrophysics, Well Engineering, Reservoir Engineering, Production Technology and Petroleum Economics acquired after working both onshore and offshore for long time in a multi-disciplinary team-based environment.

My role was to find, appraise and produce petroleum recovered from both clastic and carbonate rocks that were deposited under diverse palaeo-environment (terrestrial to deep submarine sediments) from Cenozoic to Mesozoic age stretching throughout the North West Borneo Shelf containing hundreds of wells. My recommendations to management to drill the offshore Western flank of the D18 Field was the result of an appraisal core study from which several million barrels of added oil were recovered.

I was a custodian for integrated data for source rocks, reservoirs petrophysical data and cap rocks properties. I had contributed actively in geological and engineering data as inputs for correlation, geo-modeling, source rocks and charge studies, prospects generation, inter-field development, block biddings, assets swap, notional to full Field Development Plans, Wells and facilities designs. In 1993, I was invited by the Russian Oil & Gas Ministry and the Eisenhower Foundation of USA to the Ural-Volga valley, Kazakhstan and Siberia to study oil and gas basins in former Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). I have presented technical papers (i.e. Evolution of the Baram Delta since the last 5,000 years to present; Differentiation of hydrocarbon types from ditch-cutting analysis; Geology of Labuan Island, etc) for international audience at the Geological Society of Malaysia. With two other colleagues we invented the Mobile Suitcase Exhibition for which I was responsible for visiting and motivating students to pursue further studies in geosciences at every high schools located in East Malaysia as part of the government programme on the Malaysianisation Policy.

In 1997, I was the Production Geologist for the Kinabalu Field Development project and when the first oil was produced, I was transferred to the Ketam Field. Next I was again transferred to Corporate Affairs to deal with Issues or crisis Management, and Community Programmes. Then I was moved to geology as a Stratigrapher to integrate subsurface data for all key wells and I published a Sabah regional correlation framework used for predicting the hydrocarbon habitat within the various System Tracts. At the same time I was consulting geologist to Petronas Carigali for an offshore Well Bokor Tenggara that encountered extremely hard overpressures with well flowing far beyond the casing burst strength. It was safely brought under control. Subsequently I was given to work on Umbrella contracts for Surface Production Engineering facilities and techno-benchmarking for best practices. Finally, I became an Asset Integrity Engineer for both onshore (Liquefied Natural Gas Plant, etc) and offshore (platforms, etc) production facilities. My last job position was an Assistant Technology Coordinator.

I had attended many seminars, conferences, third party courses, Shell in-house courses and regional courses conducted at Leeuwenhorst in the Netherlands, Belgium, Brunei, Indonesia, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, etc. In the same way, I have conducted many technical courses in geosciences for many Petronas staffs between late 1970s -1980s, university graduates training, newly recruited Well petroleum engineers before they commence their offshore work in petroleum engineering. I was Quality assurance team leader for technical library documentations and disaster recovery plans. While in the company, I was once its Vice President to the Malaysian Senior Staff Council (MSSC).

Outside office hours, I like to teach, coach and mentor on various subjects. I have taught Organisational behaviour University of Southern Queensland; prepare training manual and conducted Capacity building workshops for biologists and forestry staffs from Yayasan Sabah at Forest Research Centre located within the Danum Valley Conservation; workshops on Customer Care Services for staffs at Curtin University of Science and Technology-Sarawak, financial planning and project management courses for firms. I have also carried out community work in serving the needy. Currently, I am a District Fellow for Lion Clubs International District 308-A2 for Kuching Kota Samarahan and Director for Education for environmental protection and prevention of drug abuses in collaboration with various government ministries and non-governmental organizations.

I left Shell under unfortunate and unhappy circumstances. Because litigation is under way, matters are sub judice. As a consequence I am constrained to a large degree in commenting on specific issues involved, including for example details of my claim for wrongful dismissal. I will however provide general background information, including what I believe to be the major causal factor of my dismissal and the subsequent litigation.

My deeply held religious beliefs and moral convictions put me into a very difficult position when I realised that Shell shareholders were being deliberately deceived in regards to hydrocarbon reserves: I also had reservations in regards to certain health and safety issues of conscience which caused me great concern because it is not in consonant with my values and belief system.

Being a loyal employee, I raised matters strictly on an internal basis, but my reservations were frowned upon by Shell management. The senior management figures principally involved in the reserves scandal and other controversies were subsequently forced to resign and the parent companies have now been unified. A new management team is in the process of being formed, with a new Chairman recruited in an effort to restore Shells former reputation. With the same objective in mind, much of the litigation connected with the scandal is being settled out of court. Commonsense suggests that this policy will in due course result in Shell settling the litigation in which I am currently regretfully involved. I genuinely wish the new Shell management well for the future, but I am, under the circumstances, keen for a fresh start with a different company.

In the meantime, I am grateful for the kind support given to me by the New York based Shell Shareholders Organisation (www.shell2004.com or www.royaldutchshellplc.com) which is campaigning for Shell directors to act at all times in accordance with Shell’s own ethical code: The Statement of General Business Principles.

Finally I would like to stress that I was always a loyal Shell employee. It was out of respect for the once proud reputation of Shell and its ethical code that I felt honour bound to bring serious matters to the attention of Shell management. If my well intended warnings had been heeded, perhaps the whole reserves scandal and the huge damage inflicted globally on Shells reputation could have been avoided.

I would be very happy to provide more information and/or referees needed by your good office.

SHELL BLOG

Comments

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels: So Shell has been caught with its pants down again, telling blatant lies, this time about the cleanliness of gas. All so that it can improve its clean credentials and make even more $$$. Can we believe anything they tell us? Where would we be without the likes of Friends of the Earth who bring Shell to task. Where does it say we are allowed to lie and mislead in our business principles? This is a great message from the leaders to the worker bees "Do as we say, not as we do". Im sure the paid Shell apologists will come on here and tell us we shouldnt pick on Shell and they are a caring company and we should be greatful for working for them and that John Donovan is to blame.

Bogus Group: A media article has revealed that Shell is already suffering from the legacy of BG Group negligence in maintaining safety critical equipment. The HSE have issued an improvement notice for failing to install gas detection equipment on the Lomond Platform, despite recommendations from two separate studies. A second improvement notice was issued for failing to test a High Integrity Protection System (HIPS) since 2014, despite the associated Performance Standard requirement to test annually. It could be assumed that Finlayson encouraged the infamous Brent TFA during his tenure at the helm of BG to maximise production volumes (an obsession with executives), at the expense of safety system testing. That assumption would not be entirely accurate, the same culture was evident in BG Group long before. Previous failures of a HIPS testing regime had been exposed at another BG operational location, yet despite this no one was held accountable. Maybe if they had been the ‘management team’ in question would not have been implanted in Aberdeen in 2012.
SEE: Shell gets two Lomond warnings from HSE

Who ya kiddin?: This Lower Forever strategy is something that has so obviously been dreamt up by HR and the bean counters so that the company can justify all the savage cost cutting and job culling. I find the company tactics revolting. Anyone with half a brain cell in the oil world knows that its only a matter of time before oil starts to motor upwards.

The second leak, a story in itself, but also what leaked, (HF) hydrogen fluoride is a very dangerous gas when it reacts with the atmosphere, also very harmful to health, look it up. Article does not say what volumes involved but the closure of this super sized plant is a big deal commercially apart from reputation issues.

Doomcaster: As much as I like some of Bill Campbell's articles this latest one is just going a bit too far. there are so many variables which will change the prognosis here that its almost impossible to predict the leakage potential of Prelude. The major ones are location and hydrocarbon profile. I wonder what Bill Campbell would advocate as a solution? It almost appears as if he wants to be in a position to say "I told you so" and not in a supportive mode of "this is what you could do". The safety cases for Prelude do of course look at spill scenarios and remediation is the key, none of us at Shell is naive enough to believe in the 100% carbon loss free situation but common sense, good engineering and good training will do a lot to combat what Bill sees as the inevitable. armchair criticism at its best.

SFA (Say F All): Reading Bill's comments has inspired me to chime in. Ruthless cost cutting is leading to such HSE incidents. The sacking of skilled and experienced staff is taking place all over the place. The risk level is being seen as acceptable where there is heavy cost injection required to be on the safe side. Nobody dares question this due to the HR assassins that are currently patrolling the corridors looking for their next victims.

'avin a larf!: You have to laugh when you read these documents which HR have produced. It must have been written by someone with verbal diarrhea. Expressions like "Focusing capability from both an organisational and locational design perspective to drive productivity, ideation and promote Agile ways of working" show just how far these people are away from the rest of us at the coal face. Some of the invented words (ideation) are superb ! I guess this is all to protect the jobs in HR as someone has to translate this BS into what happens in the real world. It appears we have regressed into the bad old days of buzzword bingo, how many buzzwords can we put into one document. Sigh.

The Fugitive: I am grateful for the information I read in the New York Times as being in the US we are far from whats happening in the American hating HQ. Such job culling decisions are made behind the scenes without just cause or any consultation and then we are told about it when all the decisions are already made. As for this being stolen property, I would love to see Shell try to take John Donovan to the courts again. I'm sure he and his attorney are licking their lips at such a (butt kicking) prospect.

REPLY BY JOHN

Sorry, no prospect of Shell suing me. I have a Shell internal communication stating that they decided long ago that any legal action against me is ruled out. Too much "internal laundry" that they do not want revealed in open court. So I have a free hand to say and publish whatever I want about Shell without fear of retribution. Always sticking to the truth, but perhaps prone to exaggeration as "Cash All Gone" suggests in the nicest possible way.

Cash All Gone: The "leaked" document is not so dramatic as you make it seem - every Shell employee can freely access it, including all the to-be org charts. Everyone should already have had a 1-on-1 conversation with their line manager on whether their job is at risk or not. So Shell is actually very transparently approaching this. On the VP musical chairs - numbers quoted are 50% of VPs would have to leave, and GM level even more. So the cull really cuts right through it...

Shell Job Cuts: How do we know that the Shell document referred to in the Reuters article is not fake? If genuine, and therefore stolen property, why would Shell allow you to publish any of the content?

REPLY BY JOHN DONOVAN

Shell was given the opportunity days ago by myself and more recently by Reuters to take issue with the authenticity of the 88 page document. I supplied extracts and offered BvB sight of the whole document in a security sanitised form. Shell had the option to ask me not to publish (I have accommodated high level requests from Shell previously when grounds were provided) or could have sought an injunction. Shell knew it was authentic and kindly provided comment for Reuters to use in their article.

Good News: PS Cadfael, why do you assume I am a man?

Good News: Cadfael, clearly you're living in the past. It sounds like you are one of those folks who expect you have a job for life. The staff numbers especially in the Head Offices have always been bloated and a legacy of high oil prices. Ben and his management team have taken what most sensible boards would have done. Look, for example, at the costs in Deepwater which have been reduced by over 50% by prudent management and getting rid of the 'good old boy' network. I agree it is not nice for people to lose their jobs, thankfully a lot of the losses have been with the older guys who ran laughing all the way to the bank leaving some of us in good positions. Yes I will look over my back but Shell isn't the only company in the world and people need to realize that protection of jobs comes at a cost. As for Ben looking "an aging, sorry, tired figure", I have never heard so much rubbish. I saw him two days ago and your statement could not be further from the truth. Sad false news I'm afraid.

John Donovan’s ebooks

EBOOK TITLE: “SIR HENRI DETERDING AND THE NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZONEBOOK TITLE: “JOHN DONOVAN, SHELL’S NIGHTMARE: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE UNSCRUPULOUS OIL GIANT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.EBOOK TITLE: “TOXIC FACTS ABOUT SHELL REMOVED FROM WIKIPEDIA: HOW SHELL BECAME THE MOST HATED BRAND IN THE WORLD” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.